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New claims that Schapelle Corby's legal team said would clear
the Gold Coast beauty therapy student of drug smuggling charges
were little more than "hearsay on hearsay", Australian Federal
Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said.

Mr Keelty dismissed the claim that it proved Corby, 27, was the
unwitting victim of a drug-trafficking ring.

"There is no direct evidence in the material that has come
forward. At best, it is hearsay on hearsay," he said at a press
conference in Brisbane yesterday. "There's no truth in most of the
stuff they're claiming to have occurred," he later said.

On Wednesday, Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir - who has come to
Corby's aid by funding her legal defence - said an unnamed person
had provided a statement that revealed "who, when and how" Corby
had been used without her knowledge to carry drugs into Bali.

Corby is facing the death penalty if found guilty of smuggling
4.1 kilograms of cannabis into Bali's Denpasar Airport in her
boogie board bag last October.

Corby, in a Denpasar District Court holding cell, reportedly
clutched her sister Mercedes' hand and said "Oh my God", when told
of the affidavit.

Mr Keelty confirmed the statement was a prisoner's account of a
conversation between at least two other prisoners in which Corby's
case was mentioned. The drugs, according to the statement, were
supposedly placed in the wrong bag or on the wrong flight.

Participants in the discussion were identified in the statement
only by their first names and will take "some time" to locate, Mr
Keelty said. "It is very light-on at best," he said of the
statement. "It is a bit of a long shot here that it's connected to
the Corby case in any event."

Federal police are interviewing the prisoner.

Asked about Mr Bakir's claim of baggage handlers running an
organised drug-trafficking network at Brisbane airport, Mr Keelty
said federal police had no information about such a network. Corby
boarded at Brisbane and flew to Sydney before taking an
international flight to Bali. "There is no specific intelligence
saying that Brisbane airport is the centre of drug activity," Mr
Keelty said.

Mr Bakir, who founded the Mad Ron's chain of mobile phone stores
10 years ago, said federal police were reluctant to give the
evidence credibility because to do so would amount to an admission
of lax security at airports.

"I think that Commissioner Keelty should be looking at this
matter on a much more serious basis," Mr Bakir said. "The
information in this document names people and tells you who has
admitted what and who did what. At the end of the day, it is a
statement that could free Schapelle Corby."

Mr Keelty questioned the motives of the prisoner in coming
forward - months after Corby's arrest - and raised the prospect
that the man might only have done so for his own benefit.

Mr Keelty dismissed suggestions the man had made several
attempts over the past three months to tell his story, and
criticised Corby's legal team for "parading" the new evidence
before the media.

"I'm not a practising barrister or solicitor, but I would have
thought the best way to defend a person is to prepare your case and
allow the case to run before the court," he said.

"You don't want to run it in the media and have it shot down in
flames before you even get it to first base."